Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Betonnen werken tussen 't Werk by Maarsseveen/Fort Tienhoven Maarssen (Stichtse Vecht 26)

English translation

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Description

Cluster 22. Check Sluice / Culvert.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATER LINE

Introduction

CHECK SLUICE / CULVERT, somewhat west of the Bethune polder pumping station, as a combined civil and military water management component of the inundation works of the New Hollandic Water Line. The defence system of the New Hollandic Water Line was primarily based on the controlled flooding of (large) terrain areas. Controlled inundation required an ingenious system of water works, such as sluices, weirs and canals, by which the necessary water level could be set and maintained quickly and within narrow limits. Many different types of sluices were used, depending on the location where they functioned in the system. Sometimes already existing navigation, outfall or check sluices were used, but many new ones were also built or existing ones were (considerably) adapted. Sometimes local level differences between individual polder units had to be bridged by incorporating or using check sluices in existing quays or dykes. For this purpose, shutter-board barriers in ditches or even in coupures in quays were often used, but so-called spillways with wooden or iron lifting gates or culverts with slides were also used for this purpose. The check sluice, west beside the Bethune polder Pumping Station on the north side of the drainage canal of the Bethune polder, which closes off the Water Supply Canal, dates from around 1930. It was constructed as a basin barrier and is a provision to separate the works for the extraction of Amsterdam drinking water in the Bethune polder from inundations in the context of the New Hollandic Water Line.

Description

Concrete and brick CHECK SLUICE / CULVERT between the Water Supply Canal (N) and the drainage canal of the Bethune polder (S), beneath the Machinekade. The sluice consists of a concrete tube (approx. 5 x 1.5 m) with brick wing walls on the north side and two quarter-round heads on the south side with a concrete barrier between them. On this two winding gear connected by balustrade tubes with slide and in front of it two shutter-board slots. On both sides of the check sluice / culvert balustrades of round iron tubes. The sluice is a component of the New Hollandic Water Line that was constructed at a late stage in connection with the drinking water supply to Amsterdam provided from the Bethune polder and is from this perspective fairly rare.

Valuation

The CHECK SLUICE / CULVERT between the Water Supply Canal (N) and the drainage canal of the Bethune polder (S) is of general importance because of

* Cultural-historical values as a component of the New Hollandic Water Line as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially built from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others over approximately 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of combined military-strategic and civil engineering, which is based on the system of inundation and access defence (20th century).

This concerns a sluice adapted for use within the New Hollandic Water Line and related to civil engineering, namely a civil check sluice with a secondary military function serving the inundation system.

* Ensemble value and situational values as a component of the New Hollandic Water Line in general and because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex.

* The component is representative because it emphasizes and illustrates the application of sluice works in the functioning of the New Hollandic Water Line and is rare because it shows the exceptional relationship between a Water Supply Canal and an inundation basin.

* The component is fairly well preserved because the main form, architectural detailing and various components have remained recognizable and functional.